Raritan Valley Community College?s (RVCC) Visual and Performing
Arts Department will present a student theatre production of
Lanford Wilson?s
The Hot L Baltimore
, April 9-11 and 15-18, at 8 p.m. Directed by RVCC Theatre adjunct
faculty member Danielle Barry, the production will be staged in the
Welpe Theatre at the College?s North Branch Campus. It will feature
Dennis Russo, an RVCC Theatre professor and Theatre program
coordinator.

Wilson?s work centers around The Hotel Baltimore?a once elegant
and restful haven for rail travelers that mirrors the railroads?
decline. On one Memorial Day in the early 1970s, the hotel staff,
residents and visitors face the Hotel?s demolition, their eviction
and their uncertain futures, but are determined to survive and
thrive.

The Hot L Baltimore
opened in February 1973 and set an off-Broadway record with 1,166
performances. The play won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award,
an Obie Award, an Outer Critics Award and the John Gassner
Playwriting Award, marking the first major success for Wilson and
his Circle Repertory Company. Wilson?s 17 plays include
Balm in Gilead
,
The Mound Builders
,
Serenading Louie
and
Talley?s Folly
, for which Wilson won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New
York Drama Critic?s Circle Award.

The RVCC production marks a reunion of sorts for Barry and
Russo, a graduate of North Hunterdon High School. The pair first
worked together in 1994 when Russo, then an RVCC student, was cast
in Barry?s first production at the College,
Lovers and Other Strangers
. Now as colleagues they focus their energies on the students
enrolled in the College?s Theatre program.

Barry, a resident of Somerville, graduated from McDaniel College
in Maryland and began performing professionally in regional tours
of
How to Succeed in Business
,
Boeing, Boeing
and
Last of the Red Hot Lovers
. After moving to New York, she signed with the commercial division
of The William Morris Agency and studied under the legendary Uta
Hagen at New York City?s HB Studio. In 1992 she began teaching
acting classes at RVCC and started directing department productions
two years later. Barry also has been active in community theatre,
directing Perry Award-nominated productions at the Somerset Valley
Playhouse and a touring production of
The Complete Old Testament in Twenty Minutes
.

Russo, a resident of Little Falls, graduated from RVCC in 1995
and earned an MFA from The New School for Drama in 2001. He became
a lifetime member of the Actors Studio in 2002 and now splits his
energies between writing and performing. Russo received a
Mid-Atlantic Fellowship in 2005 for his first play,
Saving the Theatre
, which was developed at the Actors Studio. In 2006 he won the NJ
playwrights competition sponsored by William Paterson University,
where his play was fully produced. His most recent work,
Cooperstown Duet
, was presented at RVCC under the direction of famed television
actress Louise Lasser and was a semifinalist at the 2008 O?Neill
Conference. Russo has been teaching full-time at RVCC since
2004.

The Hot L Baltimore
contains mature content and language and is intended for mature
audiences only. The action of the play requires smoking on
stage.

Tickets cost $7 for students and seniors, $12 for general
admission. For information and tickets, call 908-725-3420.

RVCC, located on Route 28 and Lamington Road in North Branch,
NJ, and serving Somerset and Hunterdon County residents for 40
years, offers more than 90 associate degrees and certificates. In
addition, customized training programs and non-credit courses are
available for those seeking personal and professional
development.

The College is committed to offering a quality and affordable
education through effective teaching, liaisons with the community?s
businesses and state-of-the-art technology. For further
information, visit
www.raritanval.edu
.